Was God Unfair To Judas Iscariot?

Sorry guys, but I’m going to do another Molinist related
post. This has been an issue I’ve been thinking about for a while. It’s a
problem that could be posed to the Molinist giving our view of human freedom
and divine sovereignty. Once again, I’ll give a brief explanation of what this
means. God has middle knowledge according to the Molinist theology. This
knowledge is knowledge of what any individual would do under any given
circumstance. Let’s say God knows that Bob, if placed in circumstance S would
freely choose action A over action B. Let’s say action A is what God wants Bob
to choose. So if God wants Bob to choose action A instead of action B, He will
choose to actualize somehow circumstance S so that He can get Bob to choose
action A. God can get things done without violating human freedom.

On this view, God can get people to do what He wants them to
do without violating their freedom. God knew how Pontius Pilate, King Herod
Antipas, Caiphas, Judas, how all of these people would act under any given
circumstance He were to place them in. He knew that if He were to actualize
this possible world over others, then the religious leaders would hate Jesus
and seek to have Him killed if born in the precise time and place that they
were in fact born. He knew that Judas would betray Jesus to these very same
religious leaders if born in the time and place that he actually was, and that
Pilate, if made prefect in Judea in the first century,
would hand Jesus over to be scourged, crucified and buried in a tomb, God would
then raise Jesus from the dead. God knew how all of these people would act
under any given circumstance so, in order to redeem human kind from the sin
that they fell into, He chose to place these actors in these circumstances so
that He could, without violating their free choices, get Jesus crucified. In
this way, Jesus was able to pay for the sins of the whole world.

On this view, God knows about people who won’t ever actually
exist in the real world. I think it seems obvious that, if you affirm God’s
middle knowledge, that God knows truths about people who don't or won't ever
exist, but who would exist if God were to actualize a different possible world.
For example, before the divine decree of creation, didn't God know about me?
What if He chose, for whatever reason, to actualize a world that doesn't
include me? He would still know everything about me and what I would do in any
given circumstance. Indeed, He would know I exist in this particular world (and
perhaps in some other possible worlds).

Given that this is the case, why couldn’t God choose to
place a different person in Judas Iscariot’s place? A person who would
do everything that Judas did except instead of persisting in his sin and
committing suicide after handing Jesus over, he would turn from His sin and beg
Christ for forgiveness for handing him over to the religious leaders which
Jesus would give to him. Doesn’t God know of an individual that, if He were to
create him would do everything Judas did (in order to bring about Christ’s
atoning death) but instead of ending up in Hell after committing suicide,
instead repented and ended being saved? In other words, was God using his
middle knowledge to be unfair to Judas? There are a few things to consider:

1: Judas Iscariot Could
Have Done Otherwise

A common misconception about Molinism is that it logically
entails a sort of divine determinism. It seems like our circumstances determine
what we do. This is not actually the case, but I can see why people might have
this misconception. To see that this is not the case, consider the following:

What if you were going to buy your child a car for his 16th
birthday. You know how he would react depending on which car you get
him. If you buy him a sports car, you know that he would act ecstatic,
he’d just be extremely grateful to you for the awesome viper or Ferrari or
whatever. Now, if you get him an old broken down jalopy, you know that he would
probably act disappointed. He might even be angry at you for getting him such a
car. Now, let’s say you bring about one or the other circumstance and he
behaves exactly as you predicted. Just because you knew how he would act
and brought about the circumstance to get him to act that way, does that mean
that he couldn’t possibly have done otherwise? It doesn’t seem that way to me.
It seems like he very well could have acted in a different way than the way
that he acted, it’s just that you know ahead of time that he wouldn’t act
a different way.

So it seems to me that what we have with God’s middle
knowledge and Him acting on His middle knowledge is an instance of would-do/would-not-do-differently
situation rather than a could-do/could-not-do differently situation. If
God knows that if I were placed in situation X, that I would choose A
instead of B, and then He places me in situation X in order to get me to choose
A. It doesn’t seem to me that I couldn’t have chosen B instead of A. God
just knew ahead of time that I would not choose B and that I would choose
A. I still could have chosen B and refrained from choosing A.
Nothing causally determined me to choose A over B. Nothing forced my hand to
pick A over B. Also, there were no factors which prohibited me from choosing B
and refraining from choosing A. it’s just that God knew that I wouldn’t choose
B, and I would choose A.

So, the situation is would do differently verses could
do differently, and would not do differently verses could not do
differently. We can do differently in a situation then what we
do, it’s just that God knows that we won’t do differently. In the same way that
your son could act thankful for you getting him the jalopy even though you
might know ahead of time that he would not act thankfully.

The only reason God knows what we
would do in any circumstance is because that’s how we choose in those
circumstances. If we would do something different, than that knowledge
would be in God’s middle knowledge. Just as, when I was an Arminian, I argued
that simple foreknowledge doesn’t determine what we do, but rather what we do
determines what God foreknows what we will do. If I marry a black haired woman
in 2035, then God knows that I will marry a black haired woman in the year 2035.
But what if I exercised my free will to choose to marry a blonde woman instead?
Well, in that case, God’s foreknowledge would not be wrong. He would not have
mispredicted what I was going to do. Rather, if I were to make an alternative
choice, then that alternative choice would be in God’s foreknowledge.

Given that this is the case, Judas has no excuse for his
sins. He not only has no excuse for handing Christ over to the religious
leaders, but He has no excuse for not repenting after the fact. Judas did
not have to commit suicide. Judas could have went home and when Jesus was
raised, he could have gone to Him and asked for His forgiveness for betraying
him just as the apostle Peter asked for Christ’s forgiveness when he denied
knowing Christ 3 times. Judas could not stand before God on judgment day and
say “Well, this is your fault God because you placed me in that particular
situation, knowing that I would do these awful things, therefore I bare no
responsibility. This is all on you!” No. If Judas had said that to God, God
would have responded “No, you didn’t have to do the things that you did. You
could have done things differently. I didn’t make you do those things. You did
them of your own volition. You chose to commit suicide. Everything you’ve ever
done in life was because you chose to make those decisions.”

God wasn’t unfair to Judas. He gave him what he deserved.

2: It Could Be The Case
That Judas Is Transworldly Damned.

Some Molinists believe in a view called Transworld
Damnation. This position is the view that those who are eternally damned in the
actual world would be damned in any world God were to create. So what God does,
according to the Transworld Damners, is actualize a possible world where those
who would be saved in any world God creates actually are saved in the actual
world. Anyone who would be saved in any possible world God were to create is
saved in the actual world.

I myself don’t find this view to be very plausible. I will
adopt this view someday if I’m ever given good reason to. Nevertheless, I have
entertained the idea that transworld damnation could apply to some certain
particular individuals even though it seems to stretch the bounds of
plausibility to say that every person who is damned in the actual world
would be damned in all possible worlds.

It could very well be the case that Judas was going to reject
Christ under any circumstance God could place him in. So, even though God might
be able to put someone in Judas’ circumstance who would do everything Judas did
to get Christ crucified but would repent and be reconciled to Christ and the
twelve at his resurrection (rather than hanging himself) nevertheless, Judas
Iscariot was going to freely reject Christ in any circumstance God could put
him in. So God just decided to place him in the circumstance where he knew that
he would contribute to Christ’s crucifixion. Nevertheless, even if Transworld
Damnation is true for Judas and perhaps for other individuals, the only reason
they’d be damned in all possible worlds is because that’s the free choice they
made. Remember, it’s still a would-do/would-not-do-differently situation
rather than a could-do/could-not-do differently situation.

I don’t know if this true for Judas, but it is a possibility
at least.